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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24219088">yay, invisible spidey!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/iron_spider/pseuds/iron_spider'>iron_spider</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Spider-Man: Far From Home Compliant, Peter Parker Has Issues, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 06:41:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,306</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24219088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/iron_spider/pseuds/iron_spider</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s silence, and then he hears someone clear their throat. It sounds familiar. </p>
<p>“Uh, Tony,” Peter’s voice says. From….somewhere. Tony doesn’t see him, despite looking around. “Don’t freak out. Just. I’m saying that preemptively. Don’t. You’ll want to, but don’t.”</p>
<p>That’s never something Tony wants to hear, especially coming from the kid. Tony walks over close to where his voice is coming from, looking around, afraid of the state he’s gonna find him in. “Okay...can’t promise anything, but you know that. What have you done now? Don’t tell me you went back to that taco place. They said they’d sue you, Pete.”</p>
<p>Where the hell is he? Tony hears his feet shifting on the ground but he doesn’t see him anywhere.</p>
<p>“Nope,” Peter says. “Uh, no, it’s not—it’s not that.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Peter Parker &amp; James "Rhodey" Rhodes &amp; Tony Stark, Peter Parker &amp; Sam Wilson, Peter Parker &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>926</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>yay, invisible spidey!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhimsicalEthnographies/gifts">WhimsicalEthnographies</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Birthday Jen! Someone I have been through so much with in this damn fandom, someone who has supported me in ways she never had to but did anyway. Literally keeping me afloat. You're amazing and a hero and a rockstar and I hope this brings a smile to your face amongst all the insanity &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tony rubs his eyes and pushes back from the workbench, spinning around in his chair. He’s been in here just about long enough, and he tries to remind himself that he isn’t working on anybody’s clock but his own. That nobody is expecting anything of him except his money and support here and there. And he can handle that. He can handle being a real boy for the first time in a long time.</p>
<p>Saving the world has granted him some small mercies, but after the six months of bed rest he’s anxious and eager to—be useful. He’s got about six projects rolling and three of them are for Peter, one for Sam (and Barnes, by extension), one for Rhodey and a set of security cameras for May’s apartment. She gets paranoid, he gets paranoid, it’s good for everybody.</p>
<p>“Okay,” he says, rubbing his hands together. “Yeah, it’s time. Calling it.”</p>
<p>He hears the door close on the other side of the room. Tony whips his head around, his eyes narrowing. Everyone surrounding him checks up on him a lot lately, which means he’s got Avengers and family and interns coming in and out just to make sure he’s not splayed out on the ground in a pile of his own drool.</p>
<p>He sighs. It happened <em>once</em> and it was three days after he started walking again. They need to give him a break. </p>
<p>That’s what he gets for creating multiple facilities where they can all live together. He gets twenty or thirty babysitters. It’s like he was asking for it.</p>
<p>“What?” he asks, petulantly. “It’s not that late. It’s—” Tony checks his watch. “It’s not even midnight. It is <em>before</em> midnight.”</p>
<p>He narrows his eyes and doesn’t see anybody over there. Is he going crazy? Are they just hiding? He definitely heard the door. It’s not late enough to be hearing things. He doesn’t know if they’ve made it to the <em>messing with him</em> part of recovery, but he isn’t exactly sure if he’s ready for it yet.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Tony says, walking over there, his hands on his hips. “No games. It’s too late for games. Games between noon and dinner each day unless Pepper makes pot pies and then all bets are off.”</p>
<p>There’s silence, and then he hears someone clear their throat. It sounds familiar. </p>
<p>“Uh, Tony,” Peter’s voice says. From….somewhere. Tony doesn’t see him, despite looking around. “Don’t freak out. Just. I’m saying that preemptively. Don’t. You’ll want to, but don’t.”</p>
<p>That’s never something Tony wants to hear, especially coming from the kid. Tony walks over close to where his voice is coming from, looking around, afraid of the state he’s gonna find him in. “Okay...can’t promise anything, but you know that. What have you done now? Don’t tell me you went back to that taco place. They said they’d sue you, Pete.”</p>
<p>Where the hell is he? Tony hears his feet shifting on the ground but he doesn’t see him anywhere.</p>
<p>“Nope,” Peter says. “Uh, no, it’s not—it’s not that.”</p>
<p>Tony keeps walking and runs directly into something that isn’t there. It’s a completely empty space in front of him and he stumbles back, brows furrowing more severely. He reaches out, finding whatever it is again with his hand. Something—Jesus, there’s something—a shoulder? What the fuck?</p>
<p>Then. Then his brain. His brain falters, in disbelief, for a second. And then it puts everything together.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Peter’s voice says, coming from that empty space. “It’s, uh. It’s. It’s me. Invisible.”</p>
<p>Tony’s brain feels like it’s exploding and he traces his hands over Peter’s shoulders, finds his face and feels Peter exhale. Tony closes his eyes tight for a second, because he’s had dumbass dreams like this before and maybe this is one of them. Because it has to be.</p>
<p>“Nope,” Peter’s voice says. “You’re not dreaming. I wish you were but you’re not.”</p>
<p>Tony is still holding onto his face and he taps Peter’s nose with his thumb because yeah, this is happening, what the fuck. He sighs, letting go of him and hanging his head. Why does every single one of Peter’s problems feel like a personal failure? Like there was something Tony could have done to stop it, something he didn’t do.</p>
<p>“Explanation, Pete. Immediately. Now.”</p>
<p>A sigh. “I mean, there’s not really much of one. I was fighting this weird guy that’s been going after me for a couple of weeks now—”</p>
<p>“The one you thought used to work at Harvard?” Tony asks. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” Peter’s voice says. Tony feels really weird talking to thin fucking air, and he tries to put on a brave face. “But yeah he—he was doing the most, you know, like, telling me his evil plan to kidnap me and do experiments on me and it was really creepy—”</p>
<p>“Uh huh,” Tony says, reaching up and pinching the bridge of his nose and feeling a little sick. </p>
<p>“—so I was destroying his weird lab and all his weird drawings because he totally wanted to go after Doctor Strange and Bruce, Tony,” Peter says. “He had all kinds of like, weird ideas and he wasn’t really a good fighter but he was running all around and flipping and shit like an acrobat and I almost had him, I was like two seconds away from having him, but then he like disappeared and I couldn’t see where he was and then I disappeared. I think he sprayed me with something. I was pretty sure I heard a spray. And I didn’t know where he was and I’d destroyed a bunch of his stuff and now I don’t know how to become visible again.”</p>
<p>Tony tries to think. “Okay,” he says. He sucks in a breath and looks around. “Okay. Okay, it’s fine. It’s fine. I—we just gotta go back to where he was and see if he has an antidote, or a reversal spray or something like that. There’s gotta be if he’s using it on himself. He actually disappeared, like invisible, like you?” </p>
<p>“Yeah, poof,” Peter says.</p>
<p>Poof. Of course, poof. “Okay, we’ll go now. That’s fine. We can figure this out. It’s fine.”</p>
<p>Tony hears Peter’s feet shuffling on the floor as he shifts back and forth. “But Tony, he’s dangerous, and you’re not—”</p>
<p>Tony waves him off, wherever he is. “I’m fine, bud, and I’ll take Rhodey with me. He’s here right now, I can wake him up.”</p>
<p>“And me,” Peter’s voice says. “Because I know where he is and I’m invisible so I can be stealth.”</p>
<p>Tony rolls his eyes. It’s late but this situation isn’t exactly his favorite, and the guy could totally clear out if they don’t go fast. Tony reaches out again and tries to pat the kid’s shoulder. </p>
<p>“That’s my head,” Peter’s voice says. </p>
<p>“Yeah, I figured,” Tony says, ruffling his hair. “Unless you became wolfman and didn’t tell me. And if you did, don’t tell me, because we’ve got enough to deal with.”</p>
<p>Peter sighs.</p>
<p>“Okay, let’s go wake Rhodey up before this guy completely disappears.”</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>“Okay, he’s completely disappeared,” Rhodey says, his hands on his hips. </p>
<p>Peter made a goddamn mess out of this place during whatever the hell fight they had, broken glass everywhere, his whole lab destroyed, and there’s no sign of the guy anywhere. Which doesn’t really mean anything, because he could be standing around here fucking invisible just like Peter is. Because apparently that’s his schtick, what a loser.</p>
<p>“Great,” Tony says, shaking his head. Glass crunches under his feet, and he glances around. “Rhodey, can we just—gather up whatever the hell is left and see if we can figure something out on our own?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Rhodey says, starting to step around all the carnage. “Just stay cautious, Tones. And Spidey—wherever the hell you are.”</p>
<p>“Here,” Peter says, from across the room, next to the destroyed wall. Tony sees a box floating mid-air, and he sighs again. He feels like he’s in an eternal state of sigh. </p>
<p>“Don’t worry, webs,” Tony says. “We’ll figure it out.”</p>
<p>“Oh yeah,” Rhodey says, picking up a flask and holding it upside down. “I bet we’ll all be invisible by the end of this.”</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Tony finds out the guy’s name and he wasn’t even on anybody’s radar before this, especially as a supervillain. It looks like he had a brief partnership with Mac Gargan before they parted ways, and he did work at Harvard for a while before he was unceremoniously fired and pushed out. </p>
<p>“Seems like he’s been doing experiments like this for a while,” Sam says, standing over Tony’s shoulder and watching the reports scroll by on the computer. “Shit, how many people have disappeared around him? And we’re thinking they’re missing but they’re actually hanging around all invisible? Shit, people thinking they’re hearing things.”</p>
<p>“Probably half of our ghost sightings,” Tony says, making sure Friday logs everything.</p>
<p>“Jesus,” Sam says, and when Tony turns around and looks at him, he sees him wiping the top of his head and peering up at the ceiling. “You got a leak in here, Stark?”</p>
<p>“Where the hell would a leak be coming from?” Tony asks, narrowing his eyes at him. “The living quarters are right above us. Is your bathroom leaking?”</p>
<p>“No, I love my room,” Sam says, defensively. “And anyway, I’m not in the floor right above—” He winces as something else drips on his head, and he looks up again, throwing up his hands. “We’ve got a leak. A leak in your workshop, there’s a leak.”</p>
<p>Tony looks up, and before he can think about it too hard, he hears the quietest bit of laughter. Then he knows. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” he says, clearing his throat. “I gotta look into that, gotta get someone to climb up there or something and check it out.”</p>
<p>“Better, before it starts raining in here,” Sam says. He sighs, rubbing his hands together. “Alright, I’m gonna go follow the threads, bring my fire extinguisher so we can suss him out if we think he’s nearby. Just cover him in it, then we’ll see him just fine.”</p>
<p>“You and Barnes?”</p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>“Keep me in the loop,” Tony says. “Knock it out of him if you find him. We need our spiders seen and heard.”</p>
<p>Sam laughs, rolling his eyes. “We’ll knock it out of him, alright.”</p>
<p>He walks out and Tony waits until he’s down the hallway before he acknowledges the elephant in the room. “If you pull too many pranks, he’s gonna figure out it’s you and then he’s not gonna help,” he says.</p>
<p>Peter laughs harder from his place on the ceiling. “C’mon, I gotta do a couple things.”</p>
<p>“He is <em>helping you!</em>” Tony says, getting to his feet. “What’s next? Tickling his ear? Blowing on the back of his neck?”</p>
<p>“Listen, if I’m stuck like this for the time being I need to have fun with it,” Peter says. Tony hears him jump down, knocking a circuit board off the closest workstation. </p>
<p>“I’m gonna tell May you’re tormenting people,” Tony says. “She’s already stressed out.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure she’s glad for the break,” Peter’s voice says. “She said last week or something that she doesn’t want to watch me grow up anymore and now she doesn’t have to watch me.”</p>
<p>This is actually very unnerving, talking to him and knowing he’s right there but not being able to see him. They were able to scrounge up some chemicals and concoctions from what was left behind at the destroyed lab, but nothing is playing out yet and it’s making Tony nervous. He doesn’t say anything yet, though. </p>
<p>“Just don’t play tricks on Barnes,” Tony says, pointing at him. Well, hoping he’s pointing at him. “I don’t know how well that’ll work out for you.”</p>
<p>“He’s totally a target,” Peter says. “I’ve got some big plans for both of them.”</p>
<p>“Oh Jesus,” Tony says. </p>
<p>“And hey, look what I realized,” Peter’s voice says. Tony stares into the void where the kid supposedly is for a few seconds, waiting, and then a shirt flies out of nowhere and lands on the ground.</p>
<p>“Oh shit,” Tony says.</p>
<p>“Invisible when I wear it, visible when it’s off of me,” Peter says. “Don’t know what the hell that means. Certain way the chemicals are mingling with my cells, maybe? Almost like the spray absorbs material if it’s too close to me and affects it too? I don’t know.”</p>
<p>“Okay, that’s a good thing to know,” Tony says, watching as the shirt lifts off the ground on its own and goes over Peter’s invisible head and shoulders. It’s visible for a few seconds before it disappears again. Tony narrows his eyes. “Does that mean you didn’t change out of your suit for a day and a half?”</p>
<p>Another silence. Then Peter scoffs. “I hope you’re not judging me right now. I am going through...a traumatic—”</p>
<p>“Okay, okay, pigpen.”</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Tony learns that Peter moves shit around in Sam’s room until he feels like he’s losing his mind, but the first time he closes a door in Barnes’ face, he knows what’s going on and who the culprit is. Sam proceeds to race around the facility trying to find Peter, and yeah, it’s funny as shit. Tony gives Peter a way out when he opens up the door to the lab, and then the two of them laugh until Tony’s side hurts.</p>
<p>“You’re evil,” Tony says, leaning on the wall and listening to Sam holler somewhere out in the hallway. “Downright diabolical.”</p>
<p>“That’s for how much he teases me,” Peter’s voice says. “Every man has a breaking point and I reached mine long ago.”</p>
<p>“I don’t blame you, but now the jig is up,” Tony says.</p>
<p>“I guess,” Peter says. “Even though they know it’s me now, I can still probably get away with some stuff. I mean, if you’re close to an antidote, that’s a different story.”</p>
<p>Tony winces, and doesn’t look up in what is probably Peter’s direction. “Uh, we still haven’t found him yet, bud,” Tony says. “And all my experiments and research is coming up zilch.” He clears his throat, his chest pulling with anxiety. “But we’ll fix it. Promise, we’re gonna.”</p>
<p>There’s complete silence for a moment, and Tony gets a little panicky. </p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Peter says. “Of course.”</p>
<p>“Parker!” Sam’s voice yells, from somewhere in the hall. “If you’ve been standing around in my goddamn bathroom taking blackmail pictures with an invisible phone or some shit I will wall you up somewhere and toss out the key! Don’t mess with me!”</p>
<p>“Did you do that?” Tony asks. “Don’t be weird. Don’t be a voyeur, Peter.”</p>
<p>“I did <em>not</em> do that,” Peter says, indignant. “He’s trying to slander my good name. I’m not gonna do anything like <em>that</em>. I just moved his towel and put his robe under the bed <em>that’s all.</em>”</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>It’s really hard injecting something into an arm he can’t see. But Tony manages it, and they stand there. He holds onto Peter’s shoulder and wishes he could see his goddamn face, but if this works, the kid should be coming into view any second now.</p>
<p>Any second now.</p>
<p>“Is it working?” Peter’s voice asks. “Can you see me? Tell me what color shirt I’m wearing.”</p>
<p>Tony clicks his tongue. It’s ridiculous staring into open air trying to see something, and he keeps having to make himself stop focusing on the table behind where Peter is.</p>
<p>Nothing happens. It’s taking too long.</p>
<p>“Goddamnit,” Tony says, shaking his head. He’s dealt with a lot of failures in his life, but whenever they’re related to Peter they feel too big and overwhelming, ready to smother him.</p>
<p>“Not working?” Peter asks, sounding small and upset. And that doesn’t help either. Peter’s disappointment radiates, whether Tony can see him or not.</p>
<p>“Nah, it didn’t—do what I needed it to do,” Tony says, letting go of him and heading back over to his workstation. He’s got that itch under his skin again, and this is taking too long. It’s been three days and they haven’t even found the asshole. Tony likes to think they’ll be able to drag Peter back out into the open without him, but it’s leaning farther and farther away from that every time he fails.</p>
<p>The door opens and hits the wall hard with the force of the push, and May comes sweeping in. “Sorry, sorry, I’m late. Okay, no tricks, where is he hiding? Where’s my Peter?”</p>
<p>Tony blows out a breath and feels another wave of hopelessness. </p>
<p>“Right here,” Peter’s voice says. “Hiding in plain sight.” Tony hears his hands slap down against his legs in defeat. </p>
<p>“Oh,” May says, deflating when Tony looks over at her. “Oh, it didn’t work?”</p>
<p>“Nope,” Tony says, swallowing hard. He pulls up Friday’s overview of his work and marks off the third trial. “But I’ll figure it out. I <em>will</em> figure it out.”</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>“<em>Okay</em>,” Peter’s voice says, accompanied by pained breathing as the doors open when he walks in.</p>
<p>Tony rushes over and tries to find him. “Reach out and grab me, c’mon, I can’t fucking—” He feels the kid’s hand close around his wrist and Tony traces up his arm with both hands, feeling the cuts in the suit and too much blood. “Jesus Christ, Peter.”</p>
<p>“They really didn’t know what the hell was happening at first and I really got ‘em good, Tony, but then they had that nail gun and it was just shooting like, railroad spikes or something—”</p>
<p>“Okay,” Tony says, managing to get his arm around his waist. “Don’t tell me that.”</p>
<p>“They weren’t railroad spikes,” Peter says fast, and he leans into him, and it’s so weird. Tony finds his opposite shoulder, reaching up and finding his face, too. Sam was right about the fire extinguisher. They need to spray him constantly so they know where the hell he is exactly. “They were like—I don’t know, it’s not that bad, most of the cuts are already healing.”</p>
<p>“I think you’re fucking lying,” Tony says, dragging him in the direction of the med bay. “Don’t try to spare me, it was bad, wasn’t it? Railroad spikes, the fuck—”</p>
<p>“It wasn’t that, I shouldn’t have said that—”</p>
<p>“This sounds like some of the shit out of that game you played for six weekends straight.”</p>
<p>“Fallout,” Peter’s voice says, and he kicks the doors open before Tony can do it. “No, I’m being dramatic. It’s fine. And I trapped all the guys in webs! Called the cops! Yay, me! Yay, invisible Spidey!”</p>
<p>“No, invisible Spidey needs to stop going out and fighting crime because it makes things more difficult whether invisible Spidey thinks so or not,” Tony says. Helen glances over and gives him a look as Tony leads Peter to his usual bed. The fact that he’s already got a usual bed in this new facility is an irritation Tony isn’t equipped to deal with. “Yes, it’s him. Boy wonder!”</p>
<p>“I’m fine, Helen!” Peter yells, as Tony tries to help him onto the bed, but it’s hard when he can’t fucking see him. “I definitely wasn’t hit with like five railroad spikes! It wasn’t that! I’m waving at you but you can’t tell!”</p>
<p>Tony backs up and stares at the spot where he is. It makes no sense that he can see <em>right through him</em>. You shouldn’t be able to see through a person. Especially one that takes up this much space in Tony’s head. And in his heart.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t hurt when I wave!” Peter says, when Helen walks over. “Promise.”</p>
<p>Helen shakes her head and looks at Tony. “Why is he still going out like this?”</p>
<p>“Maybe I’ve been doing it more than you think,” Peter’s voice says. The bed shifts. “Well. Now you might...suspect. Don’t listen to me. Pretend my voice is invisible too.”</p>
<p>“When are you gonna fix this?” Helen asks Tony, completely ignoring Peter. “God knows what he’s gonna get into before it’s over. Fall through a time vortex or something, go be invisible somewhere else.”</p>
<p>“Don’t even say that,” Tony says, shaking his head. He knows Peter’s capable of it.</p>
<p>“If I found a time vortex I’d tell somebody,” Peter’s voice says. “Like, for real. I’d tell Sam and then I’d push him into it.”</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Despite Peter’s harassment, Sam and Bucky keep looking for their missing scientist asshole, and Rhodey goes along with them. But the days continue to tick by, with failure after failure, and Tony can’t deal with the look on May’s face every time Peter doesn’t reappear. The kid’s friends come over and Ned flutters around the space where Peter is like he wants to do magic, and MJ, Peter’s girlfriend, won’t even kiss him because she thinks it’s “weird” to kiss him while he’s invisible. </p>
<p>They leave and Tony can’t see Peter’s face but he can feel his sadness, and it’s driving him half insane. He’s got Friday running all kinds of scenarios with the last few compounds they collected from the scene, but after that they’re empty, they’re dry, it’s over until they find this guy. Tony needs to get out there himself, but it makes him nervous to be away from the kid, and he doesn’t exactly want Invisible Spidey going out on the hunt. God knows what could happen. He’s got horrible ideas like the invisibility mutating and making them unable to hear him too, and then what the hell would they do?</p>
<p>“I think we’re close,” Tony says, in front of the screen, watching Friday put things together, the tests running. “Okay, Pete? We’re ready for a breakthrough, I can feel it.” He’s got the team out looking right now, too, and he keeps checking the message center for something, some kind of communication. </p>
<p>Nothing yet.</p>
<p>“Peter?” Tony asks, glancing over where the kid last was. He was holding Tony’s copy of <em>Gone with the Wind</em>, but they realized today that things slowly start becoming invisible if Peter holds them for too long. Ten minutes, last they clocked. </p>
<p><em>Thank God it’s summer</em>, May had said, before she left for work. <em>What the hell would he be doing about school right now?</em></p>
<p>Tony hates that the kid doesn’t really get to...be a kid. It bothers him constantly, did before the end of the world, and it still does now.</p>
<p>He turns around in his chair when he doesn’t get a response. “Peter,” he says, trying to seek him out, trying to find where he is. There’s no weight to where Peter’s body is, no ripples in the air, no watery movement, nothing. </p>
<p>Tony gets up, heads in the direction of Peter’s last known location. He’s about to say something else, when a jolt goes through him. </p>
<p>He can hear Peter <em>crying.</em></p>
<p>“Peter, where are you?” Tony asks, trying to move towards the sound, feeling more jittery, now. “Pete. Where are you, c’mon? It’s okay. It’s okay, we’re gonna fix it, we will.”</p>
<p>“I know,” Peter’s voice says, and Tony is close to him—he’s sitting on the workstation a couple steps away. “I know, I just—it’s weird because I’m not like, invisible to me, like I can’t see my body but I don’t normally constantly look down at myself, you know? But I feel like I’m here but I’m not here. Nobody’s hugged me since the day this happened. Not even May.”</p>
<p>Tony’s heart twists. “You want a hug? You get a hug. C’mere, where are you? Hug me. We are open for hugging business.” He holds his arms out and tries to focus on the spot where he knows Peter most likely is. He can hear him crying, still. “C’mon, c’mere. C’mere, Pete.”</p>
<p>He hears Peter sigh and his feet hit the ground. Then Tony has invisible arms wrapped around him, the kid pushing up close and still shaking. It’s easy enough for Tony to wrap his arms around him now that he knows exactly where he is, and Tony hugs him tight, finding the back of his head and ruffling his hair. </p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Peter’s voice says, and he hiccups, his shoulders shaking. Tony narrows his eyes because it’s weird to see nothing but feel Peter so solidly there in his arms, and Tony sighs, shaking his head.</p>
<p>“Don’t be sorry,” Tony says, squeezing his shoulder. “You were doing your job, the right thing, as always, and something happened and we’re trying to fix it. I’m sorry it’s taking so damn long, I wanna be better for you and solve the problem but it’s fighting me every step of the way.”</p>
<p>“I shouldn’t have destroyed the place,” Peter says, his voice muffled against Tony’s jacket. “My fights get too crazy sometimes.”</p>
<p>“Well, you’re a rabid ballerina,” Tony says, and Peter snorts. “Graceful and disastrous at the same time.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know if that’s a compliment,” Peter says. “I can’t tell.”</p>
<p>The door slams open before Tony can clarify, and he feels Peter’s head move to look, the kid pulling back a bit. Sam and Bucky come in, and Tony knows a triumphant look when he sees one, especially seared across both of their faces.</p>
<p>“What?” Tony asks, keeping his hand on Peter’s shoulder, so he doesn’t lose him. “What happened? Use your words.”</p>
<p>They grin and look at each other.</p>
<p>“Is that him beside you?” Bucky asks, vaguely gesturing towards where Peter is.</p>
<p>“This is me,” Peter says. “Did you find him?”</p>
<p>Tony is anxious to know too, and he knows something good is happening because they’re drawing it out and smiling and acting all excited. Jesus, <em>please.</em></p>
<p>“Did we find him?” Sam laughs. He looks at Bucky again and knocks him in the arm. “Kid asked if we found him.”</p>
<p>Peter sighs. Tony is about to say something stupid when Sam walks over, pulling a canister out of the pack on his belt.</p>
<p>“No giving Peter anything unless we’ve tested it,” Tony says, eyes narrowed.</p>
<p>“As much as he deserves a little healthy experimenting on,” Sam says, clicking something on the top of the canister and shaking it up. “We did our due diligence, don’t you worry.” He clicks his tongue. “Kid, where’s your face? Can you take Tony’s hand and put it on top of your face? I don’t think you’ll want this spray in your mouth.”</p>
<p>Tony narrows his eyes but then Peter grabs his hand and presses it on top of his own face, and Tony stares, watching it happen. He can see the indent of Peter’s nose in his palm and he’s really ready for this shit to be over, so he hopes Sam and Bucky aren’t pulling his leg.</p>
<p>“Just spray it all and try and get his arms,” Bucky says, gesturing. “Where his arms are, it shouldn’t—it should just work if you get it all out, like it did with the asshole. It’ll...absorb.”</p>
<p>Tony has so many questions but they’ve done a lot for him since everything happened, and despite the relationship they’ve got with Peter, they’d never intentionally hurt him. Sam nods and then he starts spraying without another word, and Tony doesn’t ask whether it’ll have the reverse effect on his hand and make it invisible, because he can deal with an invisible hand if Peter will be back again.</p>
<p>“Okay,” Sam says, once he’s done spraying, and he tosses the can back to Bucky to catch. “Should be, uh—it was fast.”</p>
<p>“You’re going for all the drama and not explaining what happened,” Tony says, removing his hand from Peter’s still invisible face. “Which, I get, I appreciate—”</p>
<p>“Course you do,” Sam says, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re the most dramatic out of all of us by far, and I figured getting the kid back in shape was the main priority. Am I wrong?”</p>
<p>“You are absolutely correct,” Tony says, glancing at where he is. “But—”</p>
<p>“They probably just sprayed me with Lysol or something,” Peter’s voice says.</p>
<p>Sam scoffs. “I’d do that loud and proud with the Lysol bottle,” he says, shaking his head and meeting Tony’s eyes. “Anyway, we tracked him down in this basement of a pharmacy in the Financial District, a place where he kept a bunch of his shit, and we had ourselves a little interrogation until he coughed up the antidote. He had the spray that makes it happen initially and the one that takes it away. He has a bunch of shit, Tony, there might be something there we should look into.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’ll hire him right away,” Tony says. He sighs, watching the space beside him. “So where are you—”</p>
<p>But then—slowly but surely—Peter starts to appear. His shoulder first, where Tony’s hand is, then his neck, his torso, his arms, his legs—and for a brief moment, Tony panics that his face and head aren’t gonna appear, but then it happens, and he glances over at Tony, eyes wide and eyebrows nearly pulled up into his hairline. He looks down at himself, touching his own chest, bending and touching his knees.</p>
<p>“There he is,” Bucky says. </p>
<p>“Back again,” Sam says. “To mess with us on level ground again, dammit.”</p>
<p>A grin slowly spreads across Peter’s face and he looks at both of them in shock before looking at Tony again, and then he laughs, his eyes shining. He throws himself at Tony in a bone-crushing hug, but Tony can see him this time and he laughs too, holding him tight.</p>
<p>“Thank God,” Tony says, rubbing the kid’s back. “I was getting real tired of that shit.”</p>
<p>“You’re welcome to you both from us both,” Sam says, and Tony glances up at him over Peter’s shoulder.</p>
<p>Peter pulls back and grins at Tony, and then he turns and hugs Sam too, wringing a yelp of shock out of him.</p>
<p>“C’mere, Barnes,” Tony says, motioning him over. “Get in on this.”</p>
<p>“No, no,” Bucky says, shaking his head slowly. “Not a hugger. Not a hugger.”</p>
<p>“Liar,” Sam calls, over his shoulder, patting Peter’s shoulder awkwardly. “Alright, Spidey, alright, alright.”</p>
<p>“Thanks,” Peter says, pulling back and giving Sam that honest and open look that destroys Tony’s heart. </p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah,” Sam says, but he grins and pats Peter’s arm. “Glad you’re not looming around like a damn ghost anymore.”</p>
<p>“Me too,” Tony and Peter both say at the same time. Tony tugs the kid in, hugging him sideways and appreciating being able to see the smile on his face. “Alright, bud, let’s plan the funny way we’re gonna reveal this to May. I figure we tell her you’re in the corner and when she’s walking over to ‘you’, you jump out and get her.”</p>
<p>Peter snorts. “Yeah, I like that,” he says. “Appropriate.”</p>
<p>“I wanna be there when she finds out,” Sam says. “I like it when she grins real big. I like her smile lines.”</p>
<p>Peter’s face immediately falls and he punches Sam in the arm, making him stumble back a bit. “Stop flirting with her!” he yells.</p>
<p>“Hey!” Sam snaps back. “Don’t make me turn you invisible again. I can. I’ve got the juice.”</p>
<p>“Alright, children,” Tony says, pulling Peter away from Sam and towards the door. “Stop fighting. I gotta go show Peter off like Simba on Pride Rock.”</p>
<p>“Did Tony Stark just make a Disney reference?” Bucky asks, as they walk by him and out into the hallway. </p>
<p>“Does Bucky Barnes know what Disney is?” Tony asks. </p>
<p>“I gotta call MJ and Ned,” Peter says, pulling out his phone. “I gotta figure out a cool way to show them, too.”</p>
<p>Peter laughs and Tony beams down at him, thankful for Sam and Barnes for fixing this when he couldn’t, and thankful for Peter being alive to have a problem that needed fixing.</p>
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